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International Astronautical Congress 2024 – Milan, Italy

By Gurbir Dated: October 14, 2024 Leave a Comment

The IAC2024 kicked off this morning with the “Responsible Space for Sustainability” theme. There was a bit more pomp and ceremony because the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, turned up. A couple of ceremonial soldiers accompanied him in colourful attire, very shiny swords and grandiose headgear.

The morning kicked off with IAF president Clay Mowry’s lively speech, in which he welcomed almost 7,000 attendees from over 100 countries. After thanking all the partners and sponsors, mentioning many individually, he made a startling announcement. A bit of space was here at the IAC.

He said that extraterrestrial material from space was making an appearance here in Milan. Samples of asteroid Benu from the US mission OSIRIS-REx, which returned last year, are on display at the NASA booth in the exhibition. In June, China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe returned samples of moon rock from the lunar farside. The CNSA booth has a sample from that mission on display.

There are around 30 astronauts here at the IAC and two of them Samantha Cristoforetti and Luca Parmitano made it on to the stage.

Some awards were given during the ceremony. These included the IAF World Space Award for the success of Chandrayaan-3’s soft landing near the lunar south pole in 2023. ISRO Chairman accepted the award by standing in front of a picture of a large team of ISRO scientists and engineers.

Michael Gold, Executive Vice President for Civil Space and External Affairs received the “Redwire chief growth officer” award. He squeezed in lots of Star Trek references in his acceptance speech.

There was an odd “Time Capsule cam”. A camera on the stage was going to be capturing all the events, and then the footage would be sent up to space and sent to the ISS. Apparently, as a symbol that this commitment to space sustainability is not just for us here on Earth. The ISS has had full access to the internet for a very long time. If they wanted, the ISS crew could have streamed this ceremony on youtube like many others. I think I missed something!

This is the fifth time an IAC has been held in Italy and the first in Milan. 562 years ago, Leonardo De Vinci lived for two decades in Milan and made his initial designs for a flying machine there. If he is up there looking down, I can’t help but think he is looking at our progress and saying – what took you so long!

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